Five-Day Faculty Seminar | Writing Across the Curriculum

The annual Five-Day Teaching with Writing Faculty Seminar presents a unique opportunity for faculty members to focus exclusively on the role writing plays in their diverse courses, whether those courses are in sciences, humanities, social sciences, or arts and design. Each half-day session involves participants in hands-on activities using sample writing assignments and student-written drafts. Throughout the week, participating faculty members develop materials and approaches that are apt for a course they teach or plan to introduce soon.

By week's end, everyone will have...

Determined a subset of specific writing abilities they expect students to develop/demonstrate
Designed low-stakes and high-stakes writing assignments
Become familiar with strategies for providing students with effective, actionable feedback on their writing
Created assignment-specific grading schemes that ensure fair, constructive assessment
Experimented with time-saving commenting, peer response, and grading strategies
Been given access to a site loaded with instructional resources
Spent five mornings drinking good coffee and talking to interesting colleagues from across the disciplines about relevant teaching ideas.

Who takes this seminar?

Since 2002, the annual Teaching with Writing seminar has enrolled participants from the following departments:

“Absolutely, one of the best workshops I've attended at the UMN. Excellent teaching strategies that extend beyond writing. I found everything useful! I'm really excited (rather than intimidated) to incorporate more writing into my design courses and now feel I have the tools to do it effectively.”

“Re-framing how I felt about writing in the classroom has changed my perspective from anxiety to excitement.”

“I have never taken any writing or teaching course and I was anxious to get some formal training and new ideas. I have been really pleased with what I have learned! This seminar has given me confidence to continue reducing lectures and increasing discussion and writing-oriented activity.”

“This was the most useful faculty development offering I have ever experienced. It has changed the way I teach and the way I write!”

Seminar participants

Registration

To ensure an interactive and engaged experience, registration for the seminar is capped at 25. Interested participants are encouraged to register well in advance. This seminar is offered free of charge.

Participants commit to the entire week-long session (five afternoons) because the seminar builds sequentially from designing effective assignments through coaching the writing process to grading writing that will result from assignments.

NOTICE: The Five-Day Teaching with Writing Seminar will return in August 2023. Registration information will be available in April 2023. In the meantime, feel free to consult with a member of the WEC team about assigning and assessing writing.